Why Care About News will engage LISC's Smart Communities partners to deliver a news literacy curriculum focused on low-to-moderate income adults.

The project will engage Smart Communities partners to deliver a news literacy curriculum focused on low-to-moderate income adults. The news literacy component will be incorporated into the Smart Communities digital literacy training for residents participating in relevant classes and accessing and contributing to the community portals.

The program will document how news literacy informs the creation and utilization of neighborhood-generated content. In addition, the program will teach participants how to disseminate news and how to create news for their communities. The program will provide two training sessions: News Literacy and You are the Reporter.

The first session, News Literacy, will cover the following with class participants:

• What does the news say about our neighborhood?  
• Does it matter that the news focuses on the negative for their communities and why?  
• Where does residents get news?  
• How do you judge the credibility of news sources?

The second session, You are the Reporter, will teach neighborhood residents:

• How to write for the Community Portals. Residents can write about what they think is important in the community, draw attention to important issues and highlight good things happening.
• Different ways to write a story. Residents will learn about reported pieces with several news sources, first-person story, opinion piece, and profiles of local people or institution.

About LISC Chicago

LISC Chicago organizes capital and other resources to support initiatives that will stimulate the comprehensive development of healthy, stable neighborhoods and foster their connection to the socioeconomic mainstream of the metropolitan region.

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